Ernestine Tahedl was born in Austria and received a Master's Degree in graphic art from the Vienna Academy of Applied Arts. She immigrated to Edmonton Alberta in 1963. Participating in group and traveling shows, she also won acclaim with solo exhibitions in Austria, France, Japan, the USA and this country. Her awards include the Graduation Prize of the Austrian Government 1961 and the Allied Arts Medal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada 1966. In 1967 she received a Canada Council Arts Award. She was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1977 and of the Ontario Society of Artists 1984. She received the Governor General's Canada 125th Anniversary Medal in 1993, the recipient of the 2000 Arts and Letters Award from the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002. A retrospective of her work covering 60 years was organized by the Varley Art Gallery in Markham in 2006 and toured to several other galleries in Ontario.